Angie Dickinson Biography With both an interesting personal and acting career to her credit, Angie Dickinson is probably best known for the character of Sgt. Leann “Pepper” Anderson in the very popular 1970’s crime series Police Woman. Born Angeline Brown in Kulm, North Dakota on September 30th 1931 to parents Frederica and Leo Brown, she was always considered a cute child. At the age of eleven her family moved to Burbank, California. With her father being a newspaper publisher Angie had grown up with hopes of being a writer but she took up a position at Burbank Airport (now Bob Hope airport) working in a parts factory. Her first marriage in 1952 was to football player Gene Dickinson and it was at that time that she decided to change her name to Dickinson and began pursuing an acting career. Angie was approached by NBC to appear on The Colgate Comedy Hour, which is where she met longtime friend Frank Sinatra. They both starred in the film original movie Ocean's Eleven and she remained on good terms with Sinatra until his death in 1998. She returned to the remake of the 2001 Ocean’s Eleven as a cameo of herself in a stylish remake of a less-skillful Rat Pack heist film produced four decades earlier. In the remake she appeared along stars such as Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
After divorcing Gene Dickinson Angie dated Frank Sinatra for a while and later married Burt Bacharach with whom she had a daughter in 1966, Lea Nikki. Known as Nikki, her daughter was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and in January 2007 she committed suicide. After many years of refusing roles in an effort to attend to her daughter’s needs Angie took on the small screen part of Police Story in 1974, which should have been for just one episode. Angie also dated TV show host Larry King. That one guest appearance proved so popular that NBC decided to turn it into a weekly detective series called Police Woman. This series made Dickinson the first successful female TV police officer. She came to represent the over 40 sex symbol and was NBC’s female answer to the usual TV cops such as Tele Savalas in Kojak, James Garner in The Rockford Files and Michael Douglas in The Streets of San Francisco. During the run of Police Woman Dickinson was nominated for three Emmys as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series between 1975 and 1977, but did not win. She was also nominated for four Best Actress in a Drama Series Golden Globes between 1975 and 1978, and won the award once in 1975 for the first season.
The impact of Police Woman resulted not only in a rash of sexy-but-strong female-driven series like Charlie's Angels, starring Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jacqueline Smith The Bionic Woman, starring Lindsay Wagner and Wonder Woman starring Linda Carter, during the late 1970s, but Angie Dickinson's show inspired a spate of applications from women for employment to police departments around the America. As she approached sixty Angie’s TV and film opportunities diminished but she kept working and appeared as the spa owner in the much slatted movie Even Cowgirls Get the Blues with Uma Thurman and she played Burt Reynolds's wife in The Maddening and then she appeared in the 1995 remake of Sabrina with Harrison Ford. Angie Dickinson was actually first choice to play 'Krystle Carrington' on the Dynasty TV series, but Dickinson turned down the role and it ultimately went to Linda Evans. Following that she attempted a come back in Cassie & Co but the show failed to attract the attention required for her to make a mark. In 1981 Angie Dickinson and Burt Bacharach were divorced. During her career in both movies and TV Angie has appeared along side many of the greatest stars of Hollywood, Gregory Peck, Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne and Dean Martin. As a tribute to the long and successful career of Angie Dickinson she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. At the age of 76 Angie Dickinson now lives in her hilltop home in Beverly Hills. Let us know of updates to the Angie Dickinson biography at editor@yuddy.com ABB | 
